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origin, revised by Balinese scholars, or writ ten in Bali after 1500 A.D. Books of notes on religious speculation and ritual are sel dom dated, and internal evidence as to the origin of the text is not always available. Old manuscripts dealing with pre-Islamic religious speculation have sporadically been found in Java, and village priests in the Tërjgër highlands, where Islam did not penetrate, have preserved some Old Javanese treatises. These remnants of pre-Islamic culture are disappointing to scholars seeking information on Old Javanese religion. The people who preserved the old manuscripts did not belong to the class of cultured eccle siastics. In fact even in the pre-Islamic period the TëQgër highlanders seem to have formed a separate community, worshipping the spirit of a volcano who (by outsiders, probably) had been given an Indian name, Brahma (in Javanese pronounced Brama). So, as a rule, Old Javanese religious texts preserved in Java only contain rather popular specu lations, apparently of a relatively recent date, and no learned treatises with commentaries of Sanskrit slokas. Moreover Old Javanese manuscripts found in Java often are severely damaged by the wear and tear of time. In the pre-Islamic period in Java, and afterwards in Bali, the ecclesiastical class was divided into two main groups: siwaites and Buddhists. In the centuries between 900 and 1500 A.D. other groups of ecclesiastics also existed in Java: Wishnuites and Siwa- itic hermits connected with popular religion. These four groups, together with several denominations of minor importance, are mentioned in literature (see the present author’s “Java in the XIVth Century”), but it is difficult to make a division in the mass

of pre-Islamic religious texts, and to assign certain books to each group. Especially in the case of Wishnuites and siwaitic hermits assignment of religious texts is almost im possible. Probably the Tantu Pai3gëlaran, not strictly a book on religion but a collection of mythic and legendary tales, belonged in the sphere of the popular siwaitic hermits (see 20.430). Purely Wishnuitic Old Javanese texts have not been found, though Wishnu is frequently mentioned in literature. In Bali up to modern times Siwaitic and Buddhist priests are in evidence, but the Buddhists form a small minority. Moreover, according to' Dr Hooykaas (“Agama Tirtha, “Five Studies in Hindu-Balinese Religion”, 1964), officiants belonging to several other groups can be called in to perform rites, especially exorcisms. This is likely to be a Balinese development of an Old Javanese religious custom. It seems possible that some Balinese officiants are spiritual descendants of Old Javanese popular priests who' used to officiate on similar occasions. As to the religious beliefs of the laity in pre-Islamic Java nothing can be said with any certainty. The Old Javanese texts on religious speculation and ritual which have come down to us were primarily written for the use of the priests, and so were the Javanese-Balinese religious treatises current in Bali. Many texts contain injunctions to keep the contents secret. Yet it is not im probable that some ecclesiastics were willing to give elementary instruction on the fun damentals of their religion to' laymen who requested them to do so. As a rule the laity was perhaps less interested in theological explanations of the nature of the gods and in descriptions of rites than in mythical tales